Chapter 3: Best Practices in Digital Video
Digital Video & the Future of News
Chapter 3: Best Practices in Digital Video 3 Best Practices in Digital Video Content and Placement Best Practices Now that you’ve seen the importance of digital video in the spectrum of content available to consumers, what are the best steps to leverage it for your brand? 1. Think Bigger than News According to the video team at CNN.com, hard news drives our agenda, but just focusing on the day’s news stories would not be sufficient for us to reach our goals. Mixed in with the top stories is a large amount of counter-programming featuring video stories we believe will garner a large audience and have the potential to go viral through social media. 2. Update as Often as Possible CNN shoots for hourly updates with our videos. While that may not be possible for you, you should avoid leaving the same videos posted in the same parts of your sites all day. 3. Broaden Your Sources CNN.com’s video team has multiple sources from which to pull video—our domestic CNN network, CNN International, HLN programming, affiliate partners, even videos trending online from other sources. Our programmers look for the right mix from all these sources to create a compelling digital video experience. 4. Consider an Original Video Team We employ a dedicated team to create original video just for CNN.com. Content can be pegged to ongoing news stories or be completely independent with the purpose of generating viewer interest. The video also can be created to provide sponsorship opportunities which can defray the cost of the original video team. 5. Don’t Just Post, Track You can’t just post a video and forget it. CNN tracks the performance of all our videos in real time and we replace those that are underperforming. Think of it as a video having to “earn” its place on the site. ! Some services to help track video performance: ! • Omniture — Adobe’s enterprise-level web analytics software used by many large publishers to monitor the performance of video and other assets • Chartbeat — Another web analytics suite that focuses on real-time monitoring. Current users include CNN, Gannett, NBC Universal and Al-Jazeera • Google — Beyond its basic tools Google offers many more services that give insight into how users are consuming and sharing your content 6. If Content is Doing Well, Reward It As CNN monitors our video content, those stories that are exceeding expectations are moved to more prominent positions on the site to further increase their visibility and find a larger audience. Too often news sites have a rigid structure that makes it hard to reward well-performing content. 7. Best Video Content In the words of the CNN.com video team, “Look for a video with a moment that gives you goosebumps.”
A welcome home surprise A story where the user is in Videos with compelling involving a service member. on a secret that eventually is visuals, such as those revealed (e.g. an elaborate involving surveillance or marriage proposal). things caught on camera.
Not surprisingly, videos Various other topics such involving animals. as underwater, aviation and space. What doesn’t work well?
Stories where News involving General “good people are bullied or people being news” stories that taken advantage of. seriously injured or don’t otherwise maimed. have a compelling element. 8. Think About Supporting Content It’s not enough just to have good video. You also need to make sure that the content that describes and supports the video is compelling as well:
Edit off anchor tosses and getting directly to When promoting, try to make a game out the meat of the story. You have at most 15 of what is teased, challenging the reader seconds for a viewer to be engaged before to click: “Where did your college end up he or she clicks off somewhere else. on the list of best schools? Click here to find out.”
Craft good headlines to attract viewers and Select a good video thumbnail that will make sure the video pays off what got hook viewers and make them want to them to watch. click and play. 9. Consider the Mobile Experience As has been stated, the smartphone and tablet audience is expanding rapidly. Assume a large number of your video views, probably more than half, will come from mobile. Make sure that your teases, thumbnails and other supporting content work well for these devices. ! In short, be brief and to the point. Marketing Digital Video In addition to promotion on your own site, the two most important means to get people to your videos are proper SEO, and an aggressive push on social media. SEO: Search Engine Optimization To capitalize on the incredible content catalog that search engines produce literally every millisecond, your site and all its content has to be optimized for the search engines to read. SEO≠SEM Many people confuse SEO, search engine optimization, with SEM, search engine marketing. While a very important part of your marketing mix, SEM is a part of your media plan. SEO is built into the inherent structure of your site, pages and stories, to make them more transparent to search engines, driving them higher on search results pages.
SEO SEO≠SEM Many people confuse SEO, search engine optimization, with SEM, search engine marketing. While a very important part of your marketing mix, SEM is a part of your media plan. SEO is built into the inherent structure of your site, pages and stories, to make them more transparent to search engines, driving them higher on search results pages.
SEM Tips for Better SEO
If there is an an option to add descriptive If a video falls into a certain category, text within the video player itself, add as say politics, listing all videos on that much as possible. Remember, search topic on a single page will help search engines cannot “see” the video, so they engines find them better. rely on text descriptions of what is in it.
Each video needs its own unique page Other information on the page that with its own URL, even if it is embedded in describes the video needs to be another page with many videos. Most optimized for search, too. Elements such video player software can generate these as video title, description, names of discrete URLs. people involved, all help a search engine categorize a video. Even more powerful and immediate than SEO, social media has redefined how to promote digital video to an interested audience. Social Media & News Similarities
! Both have moved to being Both are geared towards • • consumed on smartphones a publishing “updates” or other majority of the time news-like information blurbs ! Both update frequently so users • Video is a very effective and viral often check back several times • type of content on both per day Social Platforms for Video Focus your attention on these platforms in this order:
Twitter Facebook Instagram & Vine best fit for news updates The largest reach with Good for iconic images and retweets, now offers many shares, videos can and brief video teases, native video that plays also play here inline. as well as behind-the- inline. scenes shots.
LinkedInUser polls & Google+ Others For SEO purposes only Not particularly well suited for video but worth watching and experimenting. Selling Through Social Two things sell digital video through social media: effective writing of teases and a compelling thumbnail image. Writing Strong Video Teases Social media is a busy, crowded landscape. You have to find a way to stand out, and give the user a reason to click:
Use leading language to make the Give a specific reason the user reader want to see what happens needs to look at the video in the video—“A wrong-way driver —“Witness the biggest shark leads police on a mesmerizing ever filmed.” chase.” Writing Strong Video Teases Social media is a busy, crowded landscape. You have to find a way to stand out, and give the user a reason to click:
If the video’s strength is emotion Don’t sensationalize what already then carry that emotion into the is dramatic or shocking. For tease—“What she did when she example, “The reason this little saw her son will make you cry.” girl killed her friend will shock you,” is redundant. The fact that a little girl is a murderer is shocking already. Instead try, “A 9-year-old girl stands accused of murder. See her plead her case.” Choosing Strong Thumbnails As much as the tease, a strong thumbnail image can make a user click on a video. Some tips for selecting the right thumbnail:
The image needs to be bold, and large If possible, the image should reflect the enough to be seen at a very small size. Avoid meat of the story, like a still photo that wide shots or dark scenes. would accompany the story.
Avoid showing an image from the key Never show the anchor on set or reporter scene in the thumbnail that would give as the thumbnail. away too much and not cause the user to feel he or she needs to click through. Other Social Media Best Practices Our web and digital video producers have these tips for better use of social media to promote video: ! • Keep videos that play inline on social media short—less than 1:00 and shorter than :30 when possible. • People watch more digital news video in the evenings so step up your social promotion at night, particularly after 9:00 • Post breaking news video on social as soon as it is available. Don’t wait until it airs on a TV newscast. • When news is breaking create multiple videos to advance the story and keep posting and promoting. • Allow videos to play inline on social media where possible, this includes Facebook and Twitter in many cases. • Use hashtags sparingly. • Use @tags to promote your own staff and verified @tags for subjects of video when known. • Use URL shorteners like bit.ly to save space in posts More Do’s and Don’ts for Social Do Don’t • watch for moments that can be • put video on social media that you distilled from your broadcasts would not put on television or your and used on social. For example, website. Social is not a cutting a particularly funny interaction room floor. between anchors that could go ! viral. • explain or describe the video in ! teases, let them see it for • look for controversy, water cooler themselves. material. ! • make sure that videos play on smartphones. Measuring Success Two ways to measure success on social media:
Exposure Click-Through
How many many click-throughs did How many views and shares did you get back to your site and how the social media post receive? many video views were generated? While most may think that click- throughs are the better measure it’s often not the case. ! It’s very hard to get users to leave Facebook to come to your site. So getting exposure there, including shares and inline video plays, might be your best goal. Digital Video Advertising We’ve seen the good news around growth in digital video audiences and viewing habits. Now let’s see how those larger numbers are paying off. Digital Advertising Rising Fast Digital continues to lead all categories of advertising with strong double-digit growth, year over year.
Revenues for HY 2013 and HY 2014
+15.1%
24 b
12 b
0 b HY 2013 HY 2014
Source: IAB/PwC, 2014 Video Advertising Breakout Digital video advertising, at 7%, remains a small component of overall digital ad revenue, but that mainly is a function of the overweighted size of search advertising, and the somewhat scarce quantity of digital video material as a subset of all digital content.
Ad Formats Q2 2013 Ad Formats Q2 2014
7% 7%
Digital Video % % Search 43 38 Mobile Banner Classifieds Lead Generation Rich Media Sponsorship
Source: IAB/PwC, 2014 Video Share Growing Still, digital video advertising is the only format other than mobile that has seen steady growth in revenue share over the past decade.
Advertising Format Share - % of total revenue
50%
37.5%
25%
12.5%
0% Search Mobile Banner Classifieds Digital Video Lead Generation Rich Media
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Source: IAB/PwC, 2014 Complements, Doesn’t Cannibalize A long-held fear by many broadcasters was that digital advertising would take away from their core product. And while digital budgets have shifted from traditional dollars overall, most advertisers say they want integrated buying across TV and digital due to TV’s reach and digital’s better targeting and metrics.
Benefits of Digital Video Ad Convergence on TV and the Internet
Larger audience reach
More advanced targeting capabilities Better research reporting & analytics services Easy integration across multiple media Better audience engagement
Multiplatform purchasing convenience Larger audience composition Optimization (how well a site delivers on a campaign) Better ROI
Additional environment opportunities 0 % 15 % 30 % 45 % 60 %
Source: eMarketer, September 2013 TV Digital Video Advertising Trends As digital video advertising has emerged as a major component, trends have emerged:
SKIP
Pre-roll ads, those playing before a Pre-roll ads have gotten shorter, with selected video, are the dominant the norm moving towards 15 seconds. format, though post-roll, those Currently, 30-second ads still are the coming after the video, still exist majority, but many have skip buttons and may become more common. after three to five seconds. It’s possible that due to this skipping behavior 7 or 8-second ads may emerge. Video Ad Best Practices
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Place ads only on longer videos. Ads If you must run an ad on a shorter on shorter videos frustrate users when video, make sure it is a short ad, no they feel like the ad is longer than the longer than 15 seconds, and seven or video they’ve clicked to see. eight seconds if possible.
SKIP
Allow users to skip an ad after a few seconds if the contract with the advertiser allows it. YouTube is a good example of this practice. Other Video Ad Best Practices Follow these guidelines to optimize the user experience around your videos and their associated ads: ! • Consider limiting the number of ads a user can see in any given session, particularly if you only have a few ads and they repeat often. A perception that there are too many ads or duplicate ads easily can drive users away • Be prepared to pull ads from sensitive stories. It looks wrong to the user and few advertisers want to be associated with a major tragedy or controversial story. • Have an editorial process in place to determine from which stories ads are pulled in sensitive situations so that the policy can be clearly explained to advertisers and staff and happen without delay when necessary. CNN Case Study: City of Tomorrow
Here’s an example from CNN of how digital video can move from being an ancillary form of content to its own self-supporting, self-funding programming focal piece. City of Tomorrow Conceived in conjunction with Cisco as the sponsorship partner, this series of reports on cities and their environmental impact in the 21st Century started as a digital-only video feature. Success online drove it to be recast as a program for analog television, showing that ideas and revenue can flow in both directions. City of Tomorrow Once the program expanded on television, it grew in scale both there and online, creating new content and revenue opportunities. Additional sponsors including Dow and AT&T came aboard as the program brand grew. Other Case Studies Let’s look at some other examples of news and content organizations expanding their information with video beyond the traditional channels. KPCC’s Fire Tracker The Southern California broadcaster While this is a public station and does not developed an online tool to track and carry advertising, the convenience research the region’s wildfires. The station created for users through providing leveraged its own reporting and other information from varied sources in one content, along with public information place would carry strong value for available from the government and other revenue generation. sources to create a single destination for those interested in following the fires. KQED’s Let’s Get Lost App The San Francisco public broadcaster assembled a comprehensive city guide for iPad, using its existing video library combined with new maps and data. Philly.com Video Sections The site operated by the two Philadelphia newspapers, The Inquirer and The Daily News, produces or otherwise secures the rights to several kinds of videos, particularly in the lifestyle areas. This additional content, not found in the core newspaper product, draws in new audiences and provides ad sales opportunities. Recap To get the most out of digital video, there are best practices to follow. • Cast a wide net when it comes to the video you post. It doesn't have to be strictly “news” content • Keep it fresh and update often • Monitor performance and make changes to reach goals for traffic • Optimize your video for search engines • Use social media to bring in audiences and expose your brand and content • Observe the latest trends in video ads, and keep current— they change often. Digital Video & the Future of News continues with…
! Digital Video Syndication
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